Seance (Reissue)

To celebrate the thirtieth anniversary for Australian legends The Church, Second Motion Records proudly continues the series of reissues of their catalog with the next batch, Séance. The album is in a vinyl style soft-pack sleeve and features a twelve page booklet of classic photos and lyrics, as well as extensive liner notes from guitarist Marty Willson-Piper! Séance is digitally re-mastered and features two bonus tracks!

'The cover may have looked like something of a goth record of the era, though then again not many goths would have used pink as the dominant color of an album. On this, the band's third full album, the band consolidated the advances of Blurred Crusade well; if Seance isn't as immediately striking as the first two albums, it still has its share of winners, starting with the opening "Fly." Its string-synth touched, stripped-down arrangement almost sounded like something from the Chameleons' quieter moments, but the following "One Day" returned the Church to more familiar ringing-yet-forceful guitar territory . . . Seance keeps at the understated guitar groove that the Church rapidly made its own, containing marvelous songs like "Disappear?" and the nicely paced "Electric Lash." Experimenting with keyboards more provides some nice results, as the Kilbey-and-synth introduction to the lovely "It's No Reason" shows. Meanwhile, the interplay between Willson-Piper, Koppes, and Kilbey on their respective instruments remains strong, with many noted strong points: the dramatic, tense build of "Travel By Thought," the low-key combination on "Electric" bursting into keyboard-touched life on its choruses, and the quick, punchy "Dropping Names."' - Ned Raggett / All Music Guide